Nate's Temporary Replacement
by iloveblye12
Summary: Callen has been having a recurring dream the past few weeks and it's been messing with him. What happens when he talks to Sam about it since Nate's gone? One Shot.


He woke up violently. Breathing heavily as he looked around the room to remember where he was. He felt sweat rolling down his forehead and his neck, still unsure of what to make of this dream he's been having the past few weeks. He swallowed hard and sat up straight on the couch, then rested his elbows on his knees and hung his head. He heard foot steps coming up toward him then he looked up and saw his partner looking down at him with an eye brow arched. His partner walked over to the chair a few feet away then sat down sipping on his coffee.

Callen leaned back into the couch and sighed heavily as he ran his hands over his face.

"You wanna talk about it?" Sam asked as he studied his partner.

"No, I'm alright, Sam."

Sam shook his head and let out a heavily sigh. "You've been off your game these last couple weeks. You won't talk to Hetty, Nate's not here to talk to you, you're shutting all of us out…again…" he paused a second to take another sip of his coffee. "What's going on with you, G? Talk to me."

Contemplating a minute to tell Sam about the dream, Callen shook his head then stood up. "There's nothing to talk about." he said convincingly then walked over to his desk.

"I'm not buying that." Sam got up and followed him. "Lately, you've been more on edge than usual. You're fifteen minute cat naps are getting shorter and you're acting like Kensi after an all night stake out with Deeks."

A slight confused look appeared on Callen's face. "Stake out with Deeks bad?"

"Oh yeah." Sam answered with half a smirk as he finished his coffee.

He leaned back in his chair and looked up at the former Navy SEAL. "So now that Nate's gone, what is it your job to analyze and study me?"

"Now that Nate's gone, you need to find someone to talk to when things get too heavy."

Callen looked up at Sam and swallowed hard. He sat up, resting his arms on the desk then took a deep breath as he clenched his jaw. Sam sat at the edge of Callen's desk waiting for him to speak, knowing that this wasn't going to be easy for his partner to explain. Waiting about two minutes, Callen finally decided to talk.

"I'm standing…in the middle of a long path…"

**G Point Of View**

I'm standing in the middle of a long path.

I'm looking around to see if I recognize anything, but all I see are woods surrounding the area. I try to walk up the path to get out and back to my car, but there was a wooded area that wasn't there before blocking the entrance. With my entrance now gone, I have to walk down the path to find my way out. As I'm walking down the path, I see a sand box. In that sand box, I see a little boy playing with some sand toys and a couple toy soldiers. As I get close enough, the little boy looks up and smiles…then I realize… it's me.

I'm the little boy.

I'm walking closer to the sand box and as I get closer, the path starts to get longer. I walk at a steady pace and the path slowly starts to extend. I start walking a little faster to beat the extending path, but the faster I begin to walk, the longer the path gets. At this point I start running. I start feeling the sweat drip down my face and feel it starting to seep through my clothes. It gets harder to breathe and I start to feel dehydrated. I want to drop. I feel like I'm running a marathon.

No matter how fast I run or how close I get, the path doesn't want to stop.

It felt like I had been running for hours straight and I was exhausted. Out of no where I realize that the path had finally stopped. I decide to just keep running because I couldn't wait anymore, I needed to find out what it was that the path was keeping from me. Just as I make it a couple feet away from the sand box, I'm staring down the barrel of a gun.

I put my hands up and tell the person to take it easy, only I don't see a person. Everything behind the barrel is blurry, I just see an older hand with a finger on the trigger. As I try to take a couple steps back, the gun gets closer to my face. I swallow hard and try to catch my breath, telling whoever it is to think about what they're doing for a second. Next thing I know I hear a shot and I'm waking up.

**End of G Point Of View**

Sam sat and listened carefully to his partner. He wasn't sure of what to make of the dream once Callen was finished telling it. Sam rubbed this back of his neck and let out a sigh trying to analyze different meanings for this, but since it was Callen that had the dream, it could mean anything.

"Since you want to be Nate's temporary replacement, you try and explain what all of that means." Callen said as he leaned back in his chair again and crossed his arms over his chest.

Sam cracked a small smirk. "You got jokes."

"You're the one who wanted me to talk, now give me some answers, Doc."

Sam got up from the desk and walked over to his own. He got in his chair and leaned back into it as he looked over at Callen who seemed to be waiting patiently. The former Navy SEAL nodded his head once he gathered some of his thoughts then sat up in his chair. "Alright. I think I might have something."

"Do tell. This ought to be good."

"Keep it up, G, next barrel you'll be staring down is mine. You want my opinion or not?"

"I usually don't, but go ahead, this should be interesting..." Callen said with a slight smirk. "..Nate."

Sam shook his head with a slight smile on his face then became serious. "Clearly that little boy in the dream is you…"

"Good job on stating the obvious, Doc." Callen cut him off and received a glare in return.

"The little boy in the dream is you and the path represents what you're trying to do now… You're always trying to chase after your past wondering what it holds. Every time you get closer to knowing something about your past, you get knocked back because something gets in the way…as for the older hand…?"

"Yeah?" Callen asked with interest.

"As for the older hand…it could probably be you, too."

G raised an eye brow and slightly shook his head. "I don't follow."

"The older hand, shooting you, could be your subconscious telling you to take it easy or…stop obsessing over this thing of wanting to find out about your past. You spend days and nights wondering and looking for answers, keeping people at arms length or pushing them away completely. Your life's just passing you by and before you know it, you'll be an old man dying alone because you've been too busy with this obsession all your life."

Callen sat in silence taking in what Sam just told him and thinking about how much sense it made.

"I think you missed your calling as an operational psychologist, Mr. Hanna." Hetty told him with a grin as she walked in unannounced.

"No, I didn't. Sometimes I just know how Callen works." He let out a chuckle and looked over at her then looked over at his partner still quiet and thinking to himself. "You alright over there, G?"

"What? Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm fine." Callen slightly hesitated then stood up and walked over to get himself a cup of coffee.

Hetty walked up closer to Sam's desk. "You and Mr. Callen need to get upstairs. Director Vance will be on in five minutes."

"Alright, Hetty." Sam nodded as he began to stand up.

"Oh, and Mr. Hanna…"

"Yeah?"

She motioned for him to come closer to she can whisper to him. "Hello, Nate."

"…Hi Hetty…" Sam heard Nate say in his ear wig then he let out a sigh. "How does she do that?"

**[This is where my muse stopped. Thanks for reading! Review please!] **


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